From the earthquake in Haiti at the start of 2010, the decade was defined by successive international refugee crises, natural disasters and conflict. In the UK, a joyful London Olympics preceded the spectre of a split with Europe as the world’s population faced up to an overheating planet.
2010
On 19 January 2010, seven days after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit and devastated Port au Prince, Haiti, the New York City urban search and rescue, along with Virginia rescue, saved a young boy named Kiki who had been trapped in the rubble of his home in the Nazan region.
Marooned flood victims looking to escape grab the side bars of a hovering Army helicopter which arrived to distribute food supplies in the Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The floods killed more than 1,600 people and disrupted the lives of 12 million. 7 August 2010.
The last miner to be rescued, Luis Urzua, gestures next to Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, after his rescue from the collapsed San José gold and copper mine, where he had been trapped for 70 days. Thirty-three trapped miners were hauled up in a cage through a narrow hole drilled through 2,000 ft of rock. 13 October 2010.
2011
The wave from a tsunami crashes over a street in Miyako, in the Iwate prefecture of north-eastern Japan after the magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck the area. 11 March 2011.
A rebel fighter celebrates as his comrades fire a rocket barrage toward the positions of troops loyal to the Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, west of Ajdabiyah, Libya on 14 April 2011.
President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the situation room of the White House. Also pictured are the then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. 1 May 2011.
2012
A couple sunbathe in front of the wreckage of the Costa Concordia near the harbour of Giglio Porto on 20 June 2012. Thirty-two people were killed when the cruise liner capsized after hitting rocks.
Smoke billows over shelled and destroyed buildings in Saif al-Dawla district, Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian army continued its shelling in the city and brought in reinforcements to try to put an end to the rebels’ resistance. 2 October 2012.
At the London 2012 Olympic Games, Jessica Ennis wins gold for Great Britain in the women’s heptathlon and celebrates after crossing the line in the final event, the 800 metres. 4 August.
2013
Tammy Holmes and her grandchildren Charlotte, Esther, Liam, Matilda and Caleb take refuge under a jetty as a wildfire rages nearby in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, Australia. 4 January 2013.
Survivors of the typhoon Haiyan march during a religious procession in Tolosa on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte, after it devastated the area. The United Nations estimates that 13 million people were affected, with about 1.9 million losing their homes. 18 November 2013.
On 8 December 2013, young members of the choir attend a memorial for Nelson Mandela, who died three days earlier, at the Regina Mundi church, which became one of the focal points of the anti-apartheid struggle, in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. 8 December.
2014
Migrants risk everything for a new life in Europe. African asylum seekers photographed from an Italian navy helicopter shortly before being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. 8 June 2014.
Pro-European integration protesters take cover from water sprayed from a fire engine at the site of clashes with riot police in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 January 2014.
A Palestinian family who fled their homes en route to seek shelter in a UN school in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. 18 July 2014.
2015
The Calbuco volcano from Puerto Montt, 621 miles (1,000km) south of Santiago in Chile. The 22 April 2015 eruption blew a smoke column 20km high, with authorities declaring a red alert and ordering the evacuation of about 15,00 people.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, talks to the US president, Barack Obama, at Elmau castle in Germany during a G7 summit. 8 June 2015.
Children cry as migrants waiting on the Greek side of the border break through a cordon of Macedonian special police forces to cross into Macedonia, near the southern city of Gevgelija on 21 August 2015.
2016
A demonstrator protesting against the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot by police, is detained by law enforcement in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US. 9 July 2016. The image of Iesha L Evans’ grace under pressure became an iconic symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement.
A young couple painted as EU flags protest outside Downing Street against the UK’s decision to leave the EU following the referendum the day before. 25 June 2016.
The Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius walks across the courtroom without his prosthetic legs during the third day of the re-sentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at Pretoria high court, South Africa. 15 June 2016.
2017
An exhausted Rohingya refugee cries for help to other refugees as they continue their way after crossing from Myanmar into Palang Khali in Bangladesh. 2 November 2017. More than 742,000 Rohingya were forced to run for their lives, recounting stories of homes burning, destroyed villages and horrific brutality at the hands of Myanmar’s armed forces.
President-elect Donald Trump waits to step out on to the portico for his presidential inauguration in Washington DC. 20 January 2017.
The 2107 image of a seahorse swimming with a discarded cotton bud illustrates the issues of plastic pollution in our oceans.
2018
Luis Acosta holds 5-year-old Angel Jesus, both from Honduras, as a caravan of migrants from central America moving towards the US cross through the Suchiate River into Mexico from Guatemala. 29 October 2018.
Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George’s chapel at Windsor castle at her wedding to England’s Prince Harry. The wedding was held on 19 May 2018.
David Jameson (real name Winston Knight), 58, who is homeless on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, is photographed inside a derelict police federation building where he sometimes sleeps. 23 August 2018. He believes he was wrongly deported from the UK as part of the Windrush scandal, which was exposed by the Guardian.
2019
Sled dogs wade through standing water on the sea ice during an expedition in north-western Greenland. Thick ice in the area forms reliably every winter with few fractures for meltwater to drain through. This year saw the onset of very warm conditions in Greenland.
Smoke and flames rise from Notre Dame Cathedral following a devastating fire that quickly spread across the building and brought the spire to collapse. 15 April, 2019.
The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, hugs a woman at the Kilbirnie mosque on 17 March 2019 in Wellington, after fatal shooting attacks on two mosques in Christchurch two days before.
